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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Le Metier de Beaute Roopal Patel Collection For Fall 2009

In which I get a makeover using an orange blush (and live to tell)

Roopal Patel has one of the best jobs in the universe: she's the Senior Women's Fashion Director at Bergdorf Goodman. Basically, her eye and taste influence what we wear and what we can only dream about wearing. Now she will also have her hand in our makeup.

Ms. Patel has collaborated with Le Metier de Beaute in creating and editing the Roopal Patel Collection, a makeup palette of eye, cheek and lip colors straight from the fall 2009 runways.

The runways.

If you looked online or through the fashion magazine you know what it means this season: 80s influence. And if you've been reading this blog, you also know I'm not necessarily a fan of that trend, though it does have its high points. At least it's never boring. I was at Bergdorf on Friday and not only got an advanced peak of this palette, but also had my makeup completely done with it. When Dustin, their very talented makeup artist showed me the colors, I gave him The Look. The one that says "not in your life". After all, the palette had orange, yellow and hot pink smack dab in the center. I think I had a similar set in the mid-80s. It was around the time I was planning to marry George Michael and we all know how well that turned out.

But Dustin wasn't phased by The Look and by the memories of my long lost youth. He explained that most of what I see in the palette is just pigments, with the exception of the red lip color and the iridescent Magic cream gel that you mix with the powder pigments in various amounts to create colored glosses, gels and stains. He had me sit in the chair and promised to make it work.

And he did.

Like most Le Metier de Beaute color products, the pigments in the Roopal Patel Collection were meant to be blended and layered. Just as their Kaleidoscopes appeal to our inner artist (or the inner little kid with the Crayola box), this is another such tool with many possibilities, especially if you consider all that using the Magic cream/gel can do. Dustin used Dangerous as a liner and blended several of the other colors to use as eye shadows, with a dominant dove gray overtone. He blended and lightened up that scary Sunburst yellow and dabbed it in the inner corner of my eyes. I would probably have taken it down a notch, but I got what he was doing.

For blush, he blended Tangini (the orange. Orange!) with Barely There (and probably also some of the pink) and applied it lightly. Seduction, the very red lip color (similar to one of the layers in the Red Rupture lip kaleidoscope, which I really should review soon) was blended with a couple of the pigments to make it a rich red-pink that was still daytime appropriate. It looked good and lasted incredibly well, considering Dustin took off all the makeup I previously had and applied this look without using a primer, a foundation and any other fixatives. He did use an under eye concealer, and I think I will need the line's concealer brush. It was wider than any of the ones I own and worked incredibly well for seamless blending.

Bottom line, the Roopal Patel Collection for Le Metier de Beaute is an interesting concept, very high quality and as fashion forward as they come. It's a lot more versatile than it appears at first glance, and my only concern regarding it is that I have no doubt any user would run out of Magic, the secret ingredient, pretty quickly, which would limit the use of this palette.

The collection is a limited edition and will be available exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman from September 15th. It retails for $225.

The rest of Le Metier de Beaute fall 2009 line includes new eye and lip kaleidoscopes, which are the items I'm personally more likely to purchase. The colors (I haven't seen them yet) will include golden tones inspired by the season. The launch date for them is also September 15th, and I must say I'm very pleased with brands that don't release their fall looks in July (meaning everything is sold out before August ends).

3 comments:

It sounds like this set by LMdB is a mix-master's dream. Unfortunately, most of us lack the skill and experience of a make-up artist and would have a terrible time creating complexion friendly hues from such disparate colors. I'd have to see several examples of how the colors combine in order to use it successfully. And, you're right, there doesn't seem to be nearly enough Magic gel to make the palette work for any appreciable amount of time.

Eileen, I think you're right- the set is probably not for the novice, unless it's a novice who looks fabulous in this colors straight from the palette. However, one of the best things about many LMdB is that they are very blendable. Their eye shadows and lip creams layer beautifully and don't require skills- just a good brush.

I'll have to check if they're going to offer Magic separately from the palette. It's something I'd probably be happy to buy for the versatility.

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